Continuous discovery, inventory, classification, prioritisation, and security control of external digital assets containing, transmitting, or processing critical data makes up an attack surface management (ASM). Attack surface control is currently a top priority for CIOs, CTOs, CISOs, and safety teams.
Organisations are under increased pressure in modern market environments to embrace digital technologies to remain competitive. While these techniques have undoubted advantages for businesses, they also increase their potential attack space and expose them to higher cyber risk levels.
These threats, if left unaddressed, will establish vital security vulnerabilities that cybercriminals can exploit. Many companies implement cyber-attack surface management systems that regularly evaluate their networks for possible threats to help them stay safe.
Organizations can proactively assess risk and reduce their attack surface in real-time with an attack surface management system in place, limiting the effect of cyber threats.
Effect of Attack Surface Management on enterprisers
The attack surface of an enterprise is the number of exploitable vulnerabilities that are presently on their network. Attack surfaces can be physical or digital, with each needing to be controlled by most organizations. The physical attack surface comprises vulnerabilities for all network-connected endpoint devices, such as laptops, computers, and mobile devices. In comparison, the digital attack surface focuses on vulnerabilities used to conduct business by hardware and software organizations.
Threats usually exploit the physical attack surface either from within the organisation or by social engineering attacks using the digital attack surface.
Since vulnerabilities vary across attack surfaces, when handling them, organisations prefer to take various approaches.
It is necessary to continuously track the type and quantity of code being executed on a network while minimising vulnerabilities on the digital surface. The more code one runs, the greater the likelihood that there is a vulnerability, so whenever and wherever possible, companies should always look to merge programs. The restriction of physical attack surface vulnerabilities is accomplished mainly by network access control (NAC).
Organisations adopting NAC technologies can monitor workers’ connections and endpoint devices on their network, thus protecting sensitive data from critical threats. Continuous monitoring is essential when handling vulnerabilities in both digital and physical attack surfaces. FireCompass allows this possibility by equipping organisations with granular analytics capabilities that enable ongoing remediation of vulnerabilities.
Why is cyber-attack surface attack management important?
The continuous detection, classification, prioritization, and monitoring of digital assets that contain or send vital data between networks is cyber-attack surface management. It is concerned with the ongoing review of network systems. It helps organizations detect vulnerabilities as they occur and fix them. In doing so, organizations can effectively reduce their potential attack while also enhancing their cybersecurity posture. Organizations also gain greater accountability through this strategy, helping to improve client relationships and business collaborations.
What are the components?
When designing an attack surface management software, several components should be considered. Adding security features is also critical, as this will help improve the program’s accuracy and performance.
Here are four elements of a robust surface management program for cyber attacks:
1. Identification and prioritizing of assets
The first step in the management of attack surfaces is to define all of the web-oriented properties. After that, they need to be identified based on the level of risk they present to the organisation until they have a record of the properties. Setting organisational risk tolerance and appetite statements and comparing them to individual asset risk levels will do this. From there, based on their risk, one can prioritise properties.
2. Security scores
Security ratings allow organisations to track their network ecosystem’s cyber health on an ongoing basis, which is essential to attack surface management programs’ success. Organisations can speed up vulnerability detection and reduce their attack in real-time with a detailed view of their network environment and properties. Security ratings also make it possible to monitor third-party ecosystems on an ongoing basis. People incur risks when they work with suppliers, meaning that effective third-party risk management is essential. One can quickly classify cybersecurity threats across one’s vendor portfolio with security scores, enabling one to manage each vendor’s possible attacks effectively.
3. Segmenting the network
Network administrators can better monitor asset traffic flow by separating a network into parts, enhancing the detection of threats. Furthermore, network segmentation provides an additional layer of protection to a network since threat actors can not access the entire network perimeter even though it is breached. This allows organizations to create zero-trust network access controls, enabling them to track device traffic on their network more accurately.
Also Read: Signs You’re Under Cyber Attack and When to Get Help
